a great mentor of mine always drove a distinction between "companies" and "firms". a company is any association of people making money together, a trade. a firm exists outside of the individuals, a firm can have views, can take action, outside of the principals. worth noticing

a firm is also something that can self heal without active action of the principals. it is something with inertia towards a working state. most technology co's, even the largest in the world today, are simply companies not firms. maybe one venture investor has become "firm-like"

goldman is probably the single greatest example of the "firm" as such. if you destroyed all of complex human civilization and wiped us clean from all of creation, i'm pretty sure that the goldman management committee would reappear within the hearts of the faithful within years